THis weekend and next, I'll be hearing, out of morbid curiosity, veteran deejay Casey Kasem's yuletide edition of American Top 40 (which by now has been emaciated to Top 10), in which "the 60 greatest Christmas hits of all time" are presented, with copious extras inbetween, making for a total of some 80 songs. Astonishing but not surprising, how many worthless pop Christmas songs have been penned these last three decades....ah well, I only hear this to placate the musicologist in me......

If I could tell my mom and dad
That the things we never had
Never mattered we were always ok
Getting ready for Christmas day--Paul Simon

I've recently binged on Jefferson Airplane and Yes, also Trout Mask Replica.
Perhaps there's not a lot there to interest a Classical music listener.
But now I'm immersed in Joni Mitchell's recordings. Many of them show evidence of genius. She's also one of those artists whose output adds up to a larger narrative. This is a long way beyond the usual craft of song-making. Smarter folks than me will find plenty to chew on if they choose to investigate her early-1970s albums.

I've been working my way through the box sets issued as "The Complete Remastered Recordings on Black Saint & Soul Note" of which I've picked up twenty-two to date. The series is stunning, especially if one has a penchant for avant-garde jazz; I find the "remastered" recordings sound vivid and I've not encountered a weak moment sonically. Still, much of this is acquired taste. I acquired the taste from earlier having heard the three Black Saint/Soul Note "Critics' Pick Sampler" discs. What I was sampling today was the album Vertical Form VI from the 9 disc GEORGE RUSSELL collection, BSX 1005. Glorious stuff!

Though I'm known to most as "a classical guy", I have long treasured experimental music and the avant-garde, whether from the classical ("serious"), jazz, or rock/pop fields. There's a lot of "freaky" music on my record/CD/tape shelves, and I love it all.

Fascinating, but a 5 month void seems excessive for even a CM site! In November 2013, following nearly 2 years of exclusive Grateful Dead patronage and while amassing almost the entirety of their commercial catalogue (it's huge, by the way), as well as scores of favored SBD and dozens of otherwise exclusive AUD recordings, I began a search for music of the compositional and executional complexity to rival the profound satisfaction yielded by the GD's quantum approach.

Funny, I guess this is by way of personal introduction to y'all. Anyhow, I'd an 8th grade Lit prof who declared that Shakespeare and Classical Music were largely wasted on anyone under 30....this message reverberated with me, but it wasn't until I was on the doorstep of my 3rd decade incarnate that I gave practice to these sanguine words. Indeed, if the Dead's prodigious live performance history (i.e., 2,300+ shows) is an ocean of artistic discovery, then the library of Classical interpretations is a veritable cosmos! Yikes.

Jeez, how did I get here? Lord, this really is the wrong thread...but much of my trouble communicating with others is often grounded in the complexity and diversity, yet subjectively perceived connectivety, of my internal thoughts. So, the Dead opened the door to Classical, which led to the realization that, by and large - for my tastes, at least, any music worth listening to, is worth hearing live.

To jump any number of discoveries from Canned Heat to Ten Years After, Zep, and Floyd let me address my latest nonClassical obsession (and in so doing, harmonize my post with the current thread): The Rolling Stones. I recollect purchasing vinyl copies of "Sticky Fingers" and "Goat's Head Soup" at a yard sale when in college, but never gave Mick-n-Company much thought aside from occasional listens thereof. Recently, my predatory appetite for vintage LIVE rock-n-rolla grew restless and I began checking out stage performances by the RS; Wow! Within the last couple weeks I've snapped up the deluxe release of Ya-Yas, The Brussels Affair, and Live '75 (LA Forum), which grip me in a way that the studio releases haven't.

This isn't anything new, as "Celebration Day", then a domino sequence of bootlegs beginning with "Destroyer", brought me around to the greatness of Zep, as did the recent spate of Doors's releases (Felt Forum, Detroit, Boston, Vancouver, Hollywood Bowl) open my eyes to their epic historical stature.

Okay, while sludging through the ice, snow, and mud over the last few day's worth of trail runs, here's what I've been listening to on the Ipod:

Okay, once again it's late and the pool beckons early...so, goodnight and, by the way, the tie-in with BB King is the live set contained on the Deluxe edition of Ya-Ya's (along with a performance by Ike-n-Tina)/peace, Kate

Okay, it's 0130 EST so I've likely just heard a rerun segment, but while covering some NCAAM action from last night, ESPN's Neil Everett just cited a passage from Hunter's lyrics to St. Stephen when describing a turnover and resulting basket: "one man gathers what another man spills"....just too darn cool!/peace, K

Credit to poster Modern's clearly unintended power of suggestion in another thread that I ended up listening to - what I consider - the Pistol's quintessential release, "Spunk", on the ipod while running this afternoon. And what a miserable affair the trail continues to be with about 6 inches of wet compact snow still on the ground causing 5 miles to require the same time for completion as 7 would under normal conditions. Yet(!), with Rotten's alternatively ironic, sarcastic, sardonic, and genuinely outraged voice in my ears, the plodding effort was sustainable to finish.

Understandably, there's likely not much of an interested audience here, but the following is arguably the greatest track laid down by the genre's seminal act...just listen to the band's spiritual investiture to this version of Cook's song "No Fun" - by the end Rotten's voice is flayed and I share what must be his physical and emotional exhaustion after this epic rendition.

Moreover, "Spunk" documents the preeminent performance what's almost indisputably the Pistol's most famous tune, "Anarchy in the UK" (it's the first of 2 versions on the album (#6)):

Of course, I'm discovering most of my favoured music retrospectively, which involves significant time exploring the social, cultural, and artistic terrain of 1966-1980ish (Big Beatles to Prime Punk via Pullulating Psychedelia and Maturing Metal); however, amongst rock's fertile epoch, I'm increasingly convinced that the utterly unique garage band; nihilistic; protopunk; bare bonz; avant garde; and Beat poetical sounds of the VU are not only an indispensable component of my library, but greater personal identity as well. Heroin, indeed. In a relatively short period I've vacuumed up pretty much the whole catalogue, with the 45th anny S.D. release of their eponymous album being the crown jewel./Sunday peace, K

[as with just about any performer[s] I find worth their salt, the true magic of the Underground transpires onstage]

extraordinary run during a remarkable year, especially the second show on the ever-ominous-sounding 22nd of November ... 2nd set Halley's>Tweezer>BE Katy>Piper>Antelope // encore Bouncing>Tweezer Reprise (!) is a 73-minute wash / rinse / spin / and tumble dry cycle that'll leave your sense of hope and optimism stain-free, softened, and sweet smelling; just like yer fave Garanimals after lovingly laundered by mum.../p, K

Not very challenging, but an accessible excerpt from that lovely litany:

Kate_C. wrote:Of course, I'm discovering most of my favoured music retrospectively, which involves significant time exploring the social, cultural, and artistic terrain of 1966-1980ish (Big Beatles to Prime Punk via Pullulating Psychedelia and Maturing Metal); however, amongst rock's fertile epoch, I'm increasingly convinced that the utterly unique garage band; nihilistic; protopunk; bare bonz; avant garde; and Beat poetical sounds of the VU are not only an indispensable component of my library, but greater personal identity as well. Heroin, indeed. In a relatively short period I've vacuumed up pretty much the whole catalogue, with the 45th anny S.D. release of their eponymous album being the crown jewel./Sunday peace, K

[as with just about any performer[s] I find worth their salt, the true magic of the Underground transpires onstage]

​Virginity lost is virginity irredeemable. However, the Plangent transfer of the original Betty Board reels mastered in HD by J.Norman likely facilitate the closest thing to that 'first time' feeling for which I could have hoped after shacking up with the commonly circulated SBD copies of 5/5,7-9/77 over the last couple years.